October 2014

Did you hear the one about Apple wanting developers to make widgets for Notification Center, then request the removal of one that did calculations in its widget? Crazy, but true: the developer of PCCalc has tweeted “Apple said Notification Center widgets cannot perform any calculations”, even though Apple’s own Calculator widget on OS X Yosemite does exactly the same thing. It’s the inconsistency and murky guidelines that get Federico Viticci.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s D conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed he expects people will be using the Apple Watch so much, you’re going to need to charge it daily. His exact words were “you’re going to wind up charging it daily”, which could either be a statement about having to hand-crank the watch to get it started in the morning, or just an interesting choice of words. Your pick.

It’s easy to describe The Wolf Among Us, especially if you’ve played previous games by developers Telltale Games. Topping that list is The Walking Dead, a game which brought episodic content to the masses, although it was far from the first title to do so. The Wolf Among Us follows the same cell-shaded, episodic content interlaced with quick-time events formula that The Walking Dead brought to the table, and even though it’s a very different game from The Walking Dead, the core gameplay elements remain the same.

In The Wolf Among Us, you play Bigby Wolf, the big bad wolf of fictional Fabletown. You’re introduced as the Sheriff, the one that keeps the peace, and puts the Fables in order when they step out of line. Right from the get go, it’s immediately clear you’ve got something of a reputation among the folk of Fabletown, who themselves blur the line between fairytale and cold, harsh reality.

When I hear you saying “Apple wants to expand the NFC capabilities in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to include replacing building keycards and transit cards”, I say: HELL YEAH. The Information reports Apple has been in talks with HID Global and Cubic, both companies that manufacture those RFID-cards for building entry. The technology already exists for this kind of thing to happen — it’s called host card emulation — and I’m already seeing a future where I can replace all the contactless cards in my wallet with my iPhone.

Those crazy Americans. Or rather, insane retailers, who seem to think that anything besides taking their customer’s money is the way to run a successful business. I’m referring to how pharmaceutical chains CVS and Rite Aid have disabled NFC entirely to prevent Apple Pay, which works in their stores because Apple Pay is compatible with existing PayPass/PayWave/ExpressPass implementations, despite not being on Apple’s list of retailers supporting the technology. Instead of choosing to go with Apple Pay — who some think Apple want to become synonymous with contactless payments — they’re choosing to back a mobile payments solution based on QR codes, as detailed by Daring Fireball.

After being shown off on-stage at Apple’s October special event, Pixelmator for iPad is out. It’s $6.49 on the Australian App Store, a price point that some claim has to be price trolling, given it’s a desktop-class app that looks and works like it could have been designed by Apple themselves. A review from MacStories reaffirms that position, examining the set of retouching tools offered by Pixelmator and the deep integration it has with iOS 8.

John Gruber’s review of the iPad Air 2 starts by commenting on the lacklustre update the iPad mini received, at least compared to the iPad Air 2, with its fancy triple-core processor and 2GB of RAM. He says Apple has accepted the fact people are taking photos with their iPads, and the camera improvements in the iPad Air 2 are testament to that. He concludes by saying he won’t be buying an iPad Air 2 — mostly because he prefers the iPad mini form-factor.

Spotlight suggestions in OS X Yosemite pose an interesting privacy problem. On the one hand, getting personalised suggestions about what you’re searching for can be great, but on the other, that kind of means Apple needs to know about what you’re looking for. The Verge asks whether Spotlight in Yosemite has a privacy problem, after The Washington Post ran a story on the topic, and the answer is, for the most part, no. Apple has since responded to the matter, saying they take measures to make sure you aren’t personally identifiable, even though your suggestions can be specific.

Apple announced its fourth quarter financial results this morning, and yeah, they’re still making money. Overall revenue came in at $42.1 billion with $8.5 billion in profit, which is a pretty healthy increase compared to the year ago quarter of $37.5 billion and $7.5 billion for revenue and profit, respectively. The company sold 39.3 million iPhones, 12.3 million iPads, 5.5 million Macs, and just 2.6 million iPods.

With OS X Yosemite being released on Friday, the only review you should be reading if you haven’t already taken the plunge is John Siracusa’s review, over at Ars Technica. It’s available in a number of formats for your reading pleasure, including ePub and on the iBookstore, but the thing I find almost more interesting than the review itself is his analysis of the review itself, available at his personal blog.